This week in Christians’ Corner we will consider the Fourth Commandment. The source for these is the Douay-Rheims Bible, Exodus 20:1-17, as that is the original printed Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate, codified at The Council of Rome in anno Domini 382, without edits or the watering down of verbiage. It is proper to state the reference list, to avoid any confusion or modernist misinterpretation. Feelings should not be a factor here, so I respectfully request you continue reading with an objective mindset. The reason the 10 Commandments are illustrated on the two stone tablets are divided into three on one tablet and seven on the second tablet: The first three are how one is to address, honor and revere God; the other seven are how people are to interact with each other.
Tablet I:
1: I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments. 2: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain. 3: Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day. Six days shalt thou labor, and shalt do all thy works. But on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.
Tablet II:
4: Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. 5: Thou shalt not kill. 6: Thou shalt not commit adultery. 7: Thou shalt not steal. 8: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. 10: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. (shortened to “goods” in modernity). Now that the source context has been established, we can discuss the 4th Commandment.
Our modern world has changed to the point where our parents, grandparents, and elderly in general have been spun as a “problem”, “increased carbon footprint”, “disposable”, or some other nonsense tag line by globalist folks who wish to “decrease the surplus population”. It’s the pro-abortion standpoint, only with “elderly” as opposed to “babies” for a direct distillation, really. Authors of this erroneous thinking seem to have forgotten, were it not for their ancestors, they wouldn’t be in existence. But that is for another article.
Irrespective of what man and what woman joined together and gave you life, God has you here for a reason. I do not write that to be trite or sound like some greeting card, because God knows what He is doing. It is impossible to know God’s mind or His plans. If you are questioning your plight, I can’t give you the answer, as I am not God-nobody is, except God. I do know, however, if you are trying to fill a “God sized hole” with something other than God, you’re wasting your time, as nothing but God will fill the void. For a more digital perspective, look at it this way-you try to upload the latest data update on a twenty-year-old cellular phone. It’s not going to work as the old technology lacks the capacity for the upload. The same can be said with regard to the mind of God with respect to our puny human brains. Need a visual? Go back to the scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when they open The Ark of The Covenant. What happened to those who kept their eyes open? https://youtu.be/FfQWz4gVcP8 This is why it is impossible to know the mind of God. We just don’t have the RAM.
In my own recent personal experience, I have been involved with my parents’ care, as they have gotten older. It was an honor and a privilege to care for my dad all the way up to the end of his life. It allowed me the gift of being present in his life when he needed earthly assistance. I was blessed to be there for him as he was my father who brought me into this world and cared for me when I was a child. This isn’t a transactional quid pro quo: I did this out of love for my dad and was afforded the time and ability to do just that-be there for him. Was our relationship as father and son always “sunshine and puppies”? Nope. Did we have tension and arguments? Yup. Was it easy? Nope. Was it enjoyable? Sometimes. Was it painful? Sometimes. Was it spiritual? Absolutely. I reflect on these last three years and I am truly grateful I was able to do this for him. I was exactly where God needed and wanted me to be, regardless of where I would have preferred to have been.
The same has happened with mom. She needed major surgery and someone had to come and live with her to help her with day-to-day everything. I was blessed to have the latitude to fill this need for her. Was our mother and son relationship all “sunshine and puppies”? Nope. Just reinsert the same line of questions from the previous paragraph, here. We both have enjoyed our time together while I am caring for her post-op rehabilitation. She is healing well and getting back to her old self and I will be able to return home and get back to my normal routine of life back at my “mountain sanctuary and our beautiful valley.
Honor thy father and thy mother is something Christians are commanded to do. We do not all have stable family lives, however, that doesn’t mean elimination is the correct answer, regardless of feelings or past injuries. Granted, if we could go back in time and “fix” that, perhaps things would be better, perhaps not. Either way, it is nothing more than conjecture. I am confident that there are those who have had “bad”, “abusive” or “no” relationships with their parents. It is out of these types of pain that policies such as dishonoring parents, grandparents, euthanasia, etc., arise. It could also be just pure evil. Whatever the reason(s), breaking the 4th Commandment is not a prudent choice. We are not going to change anyone’s past or any past for that matter, as it is in the past. Our elderly are a treasure and should be treated as such, no matter how difficult, as that is where our cultural diversities originate. Part of the problem of ignoring the 4th Commandment is directly related to the source of legislation of “suicide pills”, “euthanasia of the elderly”, “legalizing prostitution”, and taking lands from folks who have lived on that land for generations via abominable “land use code” changes. This needs to stop.
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